One week before their Gallery Night show at Vinyl Music Hall, NotQuiteGNR frontman Chad Atkins talked about the future of the band, his solo work and the biggest misconceptions surrounding tribute bands.

Here is a link to the article that ran in the Pensacola News Journal and the full interview with Atkins follows below.

*** Chad Atkins Interview ***

MS: Has anyone ever…well, let me explain the story. I was out in California for Halloween and I was dressed up as Mr. T and this one guy came up-he was drunk as hell-he thought I was Mr. T. and it made me think about it; Have you ever been confused as Axl Rose? You do a pretty awesome job.

CA: I appreciate it man. Not really. It’s happened on a couple occasions, but it’s just weird scenarios where either it’s ridiculous to think that I’m actually him and they’re just too drunk or something or there was a time when I hopped on stage with Metal Skool years ago and sang “Night Train” with them. So there were a couple of people that thought I was him then because that was around the time when he kind of disappeared and all that stuff. That was the only time. I try to work for authenticity, to play the part as well as I can, but I think there’s enough differences that people generally get it.

MS: What’s the biggest misconception that people have about a tribute band?

CA: The thing about tribute bands is it can be a real fun thing, you know. You can see some type of show that you’ve never had a chance to see. Like if you’re going to see a Zeppelin tribute or something like that. And really with us too because we’re doing the old classic style of Guns N’ Roses and that’s not really around anymore. It can be a real fun thing, but it got so watered down for a few years, like there were was a tribute for every band almost. Not that that was necessarily the problem, but it was like a lot of the tribute that came out were…a lot of these acts, you know what I’m talking about, they may not really even be that good. They just kind of jump on the wagon, you know. It kind of watered things down; people go out and they see those bands and they’re like, “Oh, that band kind of sucks”, so they get to thinking that tribute bands in general suck. And that’s not the case at all. There’s a lot of us that really work hard at giving as good a show as we possibly can.

MS: Next week, it’s going to be at Vinyl Music Hall, there’s Gallery Night. I’m expecting a ton of people. I know there are going to be some people who have never seen you perform before…how would you describe what’s going to happen when these people walk into Vinyl and see your band play. What can they expect?

CA: I think a lot of people are going to really kind of be shocked and …we might rejuvenate some old love of it for some people it might bring some nostalgia back. Be like, “Man, I didn’t even think about it.” They’re just out having fun and haven’t ever thought about going to see a Guns N’ Roses tribute. Maybe even forgot about Guns N’ Roses or something, but then you slip up on something like that and can really rejuvenate that old love for it. We’re going to do our all to do the best show possible for it and it’s pretty loud and it’s pretty fun. There’s a lot of energy.

MS: What’s the next goal for you?

CA: Man, well… I write music too. I write a bunch of different styles and stuff like that. You see Appetite’s been around for over 10 years and then we kind of stopped doing it about the turn of this year and I really wanted to go at it again and finish it out on top. Really go over the top with as much as we can and do as well as we can. And really do well and then we can call it or whatever, but just wanted to give it one more go through. And I’ve kind of put some of that creative stuff on hold to do this, but I mean, my goal with this is to really just reach as far as we possibly can and get as much of a crowd as we possibly can with this and oddly enough, there’s a couple of cities in the United States that for some reason, I really want to play, but we’ve been all over the States and we’ve been in Mexico, but we’ve never played Portland, Oregon and we’ve never played San Francisco and I just don’t know why that’s never happened, but we’ve got to do that. That’s another goal. I want to get it out there as much as I possibly can and then the future goals will be like getting some of my stuff out there, the original stuff.

MS: We talked about that last time, your original music and as far as Appetite for me- I’ve never seen Guns N’ Roses live, I was the biggest fan when I was 15 years old in 89-and seeing you guys, that’s me seeing Guns N’ Roses, so I thank you for doing this, because some people won’t get the chance to see Guns N’ Roses. So you are it; seeing you guys perform, so I’m just going to enjoy every performance you guys do.

CA: Man, I appreciate the hell out of that, man. Thank you.

MS: No problem, Chad. Last thing; Do you want to add anything. Do you want the fans in Pensacola to know about the show next week? Anything you want them to know?

CA: Please pay attention to our Facebook and the website which NotquiteGNR.net. Because that’s were you’ll find out little extras and when we’ll be around again and all that stuff, but that’s really my lifeline when it comes to getting word out to people. But I don’t know man, other than that, “Get out there.” I mean, it’s a free show, there’s no reason not to be there really. It’s going to be awesome, I can’t wait.

We’ve been working on a lot of stuff since the last time we were there. We’ve really got this new thing kicking pretty strong. I’m looking forward to it.

MS: Can you give us any hints or any surprises?

CA: I actually don’t know, I don’t want to lie. There are two different ideas that we have and I’m not sure exactly what thing we’re going to work towards yet. I mean, that we’re actually going to be able to do. But it is revamped. It’s definitely a revamped situation. It’s awesome. It’s the best sound in, I don’t know in how long. I’m pretty excited about it.